Monday, May 13, 2013

Common-Core Pushback to the Pushback: Who Has the Political Mojo? - State EdWatch - Education Week

Common-Core Pushback to the Pushback: Who Has the Political Mojo? - State EdWatch - Education Week:


Common-Core Pushback to the Pushback: Who Has the Political Mojo?

The political battle over the Common Core State Standards is heating up, both at the state level and in broader debates at the national level, and at least some supporters of the standards appear to be taking notice that the ride may get very bumpy, at least politically. One supporter who summed up such fears was Andrew Rotherham, the co-founder of Bellwether Education Partners, a K-12 consulting firm. He said that common-core advocates who issued simple dismissals of concerns or criticisms about the standards' path ahead were exhibiting a disconcerting "view from the Green Zone." This is a reference to the international zone in Baghdad that was the heart of the American presence in Iraq following the U.S. invasion in 2003, and it's not a flattering one.
Opponents of the common core are smelling blood in the water and are trying various methods to diversify their portfolio of attacks. On May 2, several anti-common-core groups and individuals held a "Twitter rally" to #stopcommoncore, and afterwards provided an analysis of anti-common-core tweets from the rally. The stats, provided to me by Jamie Gass of the Pioneer Institute, showed that the rally produced 14,970 uses of the